Who knew that with only water pressure, ancient fountains could shoot water up into the air!?
First we went into the villa, a reconstructed convent altered to host the patrons more extravagant tastes.
There was a room that had every surface painted in a way that made it look like it was open air, patios and columns stretching out into the distance.
These are just some of my personal favorite details of the interior. Note the river rock tiling rather than marble or other smooth stones!
And then the gardens!! As you can see, the garden is high up, rolling down the hill in layered terraces! It was a bit hard to get up and down but I’m so tough it wasn’t a problem!!
Tivoli is known for it’s water and the water features in these gardens were the highlight of this trip!
There’s about 103 different little fountains along this pathway, each little face shows a different phase of Ovid’s creature’s metamorphoses!
This fountain, representing Tivoli, might have been my favorite one. It wasn’t the largest or most grand of the fountains, but it had a really nice, unique character to it. There’s a path that’s closed off to the public behind the fountain (you can see the little arches) and apparently couples in the olden days would walk back there and little fountains would open up at certain points of the day. The boy would let the girl get showered by water and then sneakily use it as an excuse to protect her from the cold!
Overall, really gorgeous place!